In a video posted on Youtube on Saturday, the hacker collective Anonymous aims its arrows at Tesla boss Elon Musk. According to the hackers, the South African CEO manipulates the prices of cryptocurrencies, thereby “destroy lives.” They let Musk know that his game is now over: “You have found your match. We are coming after you”.
According to the hackers, Musk has long been able to play nice weather with electric cars and travel to the moon, but in reality, the Tesla boss is a “narcissistic rich guy desperate for attention”. His drive to save the world is said to be based more on “feelings of superiority and the saviour complex” than actual concern for humanity.
For example, the collective points out that Musk has no objection whatsoever to installing dictatorial regimes in the countries where the raw materials that his companies need are mined and where children are also exploited.
Anonymous accuses Musk of manipulating the already unstable cryptocurrencies, which he enriches himself with at the expense of others. By writing positive or negative messages about certain cryptocurrencies, he influences his followers and other traders in the market who buy or sell a certain crypto coin en masse, causing the prices to fluctuate enormously.
What does a bitcoin cost?
Currently, a bitcoin is worth just over 35,000 US dollars on Saturday. The coin has fallen in value since the record level of $64,895 in mid-April due to fears of stricter regulations and concerns about the high energy consumption of cryptocurrencies.
A Tesla car for a few bitcoins
Musk, for example, was a strong supporter of cryptocurrencies for a long time because he had less and less faith in the US dollar. In February, he announced that Tesla had exchanged 1.5 billion US dollars for bitcoin and promised that customers could soon even buy cars from his company with it.
Since last month, however, love seems to have cooled down. Tesla announced in May that it would not accept bitcoins after all because Musk believes that generating the coins (‘mining’ in the jargon) costs a lot of power and is therefore bad for the environment. After the announcements, both the price of Tesla and bitcoin plunged into the minus.
It has been known for years that generating bitcoins is anything but environmentally friendly. That’s why many doubt Musk’s argument was genuine. The hackers of Anonymous argue that Tesla had to give up bitcoin because otherwise, it would no longer receive government subsidies. The collective believes that Tesla earns much more money from this than selling cars, but they provide no evidence for that claim in the video.
To the moon
Musk also backed another cryptocurrency, the ‘dogecoin’. Once set up as a parody of crypto coins, this coin also became fashionable, partly thanks to Musk’s promotion. In 2021, the currency rose as much as 5,000 per cent in value. Musk called the dogecoin “The People’s Cryptocurrency” and even promised to bury a physical dogecoin on the moon. But recently, he suddenly called that same coin “a scam”, causing the price to collapse temporarily.
Bitcoin also lost value again on Friday after a few cryptic tweets from Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO tweeted “#Bitcoin” alongside a broken heart emoji. Less than two hours later, Musk tweeted again, this time with an “I miss you” meme. It sparked furious reactions from users begging Musk to stop influencing prices.
Because what sometimes seems like a game to Musk is sometimes a real roller coaster of emotions for (small) investors for holders of the coins and “has destroyed lives”. According to the collective, he would have no remorse for his actions due to his privileged position as the son of a South African owner of a diamond mine. The latter amassed his fortune during the apartheid regime.
It is not clear from the video what the collective wants to do against Musk. It ends with a cryptic message: “We are Anonymous. We are a legion. We are coming after you.”
